EDITORIAL: Checking for bias

The Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission has hired an independent expert — University of Toronto criminology professor and author on race and crime Scot Wortley — to review local law enforcement’s use of the controversial practice of police observing and often stopping people to find out who they are and what they’re doing.

The move stems from news reports that published data earlier this year showing police officers in Halifax were three times more likely to street-check black people than white people.

Wortley, who’s been a professor at the university’s Centre of Criminology since 1996, has also worked with Ontario’s Anti-Racism Directorate to set standards for collecting and disseminating race-based data within the public sector.

As Wortley rightly said this week, the key here is carefully examining the data about over-representation of black people in street checks to determine what could be bias and what might reflect “what could be called legitimate police activities.”

The Halifax Regional Police are to be commended for not waiting for results of Wortley’s work, to take about two months, to improve street-check policies and practices. That includes plans for training next year on fair and impartial policing for all officers, including the chief.

There’s been increased focus on street checks across Canada recently.

Earlier this year, Ontario brought in strict rules governing police street checks, though there’s disagreement on whether those changes went far enough. Last month, Alberta announced widespread provincewide consultations this fall on police street checks, with the goal of creating rules around the practice.

Police — including a black RCMP officer in Halifax interviewed by CBC last winter — argue street checks can help prevent and solve crimes.

No one wants to reduce police’s ability to keep the public safe. The key is ensuring bias doesn’t subvert those efforts.